Sarah's Baby Enters College: Memorabilia of Freshman Life at the University of Kentucky, 1933-1934

David Hillis Salyers II, the youngest child of Will and Sarah Eva Howe Salyers, made quite a name for himself at Henry Clay High in Lexington. He must have been a "Big Man on Campus" in high school by the time he graduated in 1933.

That fall he enrolled at the University of Kentucky. In those days, the college freshman year was steeped in traditions and rules that were intended, I thought, to put freshmen in their place – to deliver what my grandmother called a "considerable comeuppance" to new students who arrived from high school full of self-confidence and senior sensibilities. Apparently, I was wrong about that. Freshmen apparently basked in those traditions and rules.

For example, each freshman had to learn the college song, written just eight years before David started college.

Every freshman boy had to wear a cap and could be penalized if found on campus without it. This campus newspaper article explained:

The story ended: "Freshmen: Display your caps proudly! In wearing them, you are doing much more than merely distinguishing yourselves as freshmen. You are preserving a tradition of your University." His mother, Sarah, liked the caps herself. On Oct. 15, 1933, she wrote to her mother and sister:

David has just finished his fifth week at U of K and is quite a seasoned freshman now. In a few more days the freshies will have to begin wearing their caps and we are so glad, for it makes them look more "authentic."

 David, who like his siblings before him joined the staff of the Kentucky Kernal student newspaper staff, wrote this article about the history of the freshman cap:

Unfortunately, I have yet to find a photo of David in his freshman cap. I'm sure it was more attractive than a shaved head would have been!

David was a busy freshman! Here's a section of a newspaper clipping showing him

as a member of the university's Men's Glee Club, directed by Professor C. A. Lambert. Someone (probably Sarah) marked him with an "x."

As in high school, he participated in school drama productions. In his freshman year, he appeared in the university production of "Peter Pan." The following article, apparently from a newspaper in his home town of Carrollton, Ky., brags about him. The next item, the playbill's Cast of Characters, lists David in the starring role.

As mentioned in the Carrollton newspaper article, David was also a member of SuKY (an honorary student pep society) and a pledge (and later a full-fledged member) of Kappa Sigma fraternity. The next clipping from the Kentucky Kernel names members of the chapter's pledge class of 1933. Do you recognize any of your own ancestors on the list?

And, of course, there was sports. David attended college athletic events but, as far as I know, was not on UK teams (except, later, possibly tennis). Apparently he preferred watching basketball more than football. The scrapbook for his freshman year included these bits of basketball ephemera:

 I'm puzzled about the following piece. It seems to be an editorial statement that David wrote about college sports.

The scrapbooks also mention that David was for at least a semester a member of some sort of military drill corp. So many activities, yet apparently he took a robust academic schedule and made better than average grades. Like his siblings, it seems the busier he was, the higher his achievements.

Because it is fascinating to compare costs of times gone by to costs today, I'll close by posting the receipt for David's first semester at UK. His $47 cost for fees in 1933 represents $506 in today's dollars – a 2430.8 percent inflation rate. I don't know what "fees" covered in 1933 and if tuition was included in that category. According to the College Board, the average for tuition and fees at a public, in-state college/university in the 2017-2018 was about $5,000 per semester, so $506 sounds pretty good!

Note the headline pasted over one corner of the receipt. Imagine UK with only 2,347 students!

Now that we have all four of the Salyers children through high school and into college, I'm hoping readers will guide me on where this blog goes from here. As I mentioned in the previous post, I recently acquired pages and pages written in the 1940s by "The Scrapbooker," Sarah Eva Howe. The pages record her memories of childhood in Carrollton. While I have not yet read this "new" memoir, I anticipate it will build on stories told in the early scrapbooks, adding more names, dates, and places – and adding new stories as well. Where shall we go next, dear reader? Do we continue watching Sarah's four children grow up, get jobs, serve in the military, fall in love, and marry? Or do we double back to pick up Sarah's memories of the 1890s before picking up again where we left off in 1933? I'm eager to hear your opinion. Just click "Post a Comment" below.